


Innocence

by edgeoflights



Series: Innocence [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Ant-Man (Movies)
Genre: BAMF Jemma Simmons, BAMF Skye | Daisy Johnson, Bus Kids - Freeform, F/M, Multi, Post-Season/Series 05, SHIELD 616 | The Bus, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:14:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24255697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edgeoflights/pseuds/edgeoflights
Summary: Post Season 5, Daisy, Fitz, and Jemma mess around with an 084 that sends them back in time to the Bus, before the fall of SHIELD.While they try to get back to their time, they realize how much they missed being young and innocent. Lots of fluff mixed with angst, and lots of proud Bus Parents and Bus Kids moments. Oh, and Ward gets beat up, of course.
Relationships: Jemma Simmons & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Leo Fitz & Jemma Simmons & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Leo Fitz & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons, Phil Coulson & Melinda May & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Phil Coulson/Melinda May, Skye | Daisy Johnson & Agents of SHIELD Team
Series: Innocence [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1764244
Comments: 38
Kudos: 197





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this is interesting for you! Kudos and comments make my day!
> 
> I Hope you are safe, and un sick from Co-vid! If you do have it, I hope it goes away and you are perfectly healthy again! Meanwhile, enjoy this crack fic!
> 
> Fitz didn't die, so it's still the same Fitz that cut into Daisy's neck. Because... drama. <3

Daisy still avoided Fitz like the plague because she always began to feel dizzy and had the urge to vomit when she saw his face. But Jemma was like a sister to her, so Daisy dealt with her best friend's husband. She visited Jemma in the labs as much as she could, bringing popcorn or burritos from the small mom and pop food market next to the lighthouse.

On one such day, she found Jemma and Fitz inspecting a watch. “What’s that?” she asked, curious.

“An 084. It was found on an ex hydra operative who used it to appear out of nowhere.” Jemma explained.

“Ah.” She leaned over Jemma’s shoulder to inspect the watch. “Looks like a regular old rich white dude watch. I used to pilfer those off of snotty shoppers downtown.” she commented.

Fitz turned the watchover in his hands. “I don’t understand how it works.”

Jemma poked at it. “Looks the same, and has the same rudimentary mechanism inside.”

Daisy shrugged. “Maybe I can find something,” she offered, reaching for the watch just as Fitz said, “Wait, I found some-”

  
  


.o.

  
  


Daisy opened her eyes under her covers, with a headache. “Wait- what?” she asked groggily, pulling herself up out of her sheets. Last thing she remembered, she was with FitzSimmons messing with a watch…

Just then, Daisy recognized the stiff mattress on the small bed, and looked around the room. Her hula doll; her old posters; her rusty old laptop that she’d put in storage...

Her eyes widened.

_I’m in my bunk, on the Bus, which was destroyed two years ago. This is impossible._

She panicked, reaching out with her powers to see if anyone was around, then faltered when she didn’t feel the familiar tingle under her skin.

“Uh-” she gasped, taking in deep breaths. “What the fuck, where are my powers, I’ve gotta be dreaming,” she said to herself. She swung her legs over the bed and sat up, feeling achingly empty. She numbly opened her door and walked slowly through the hallway.

“Skye?” She heard from behind her. She whirled around to see May… but not her May. This May had a completely closed off and guarded expression; one that she’d completely lost around Daisy over the years.

“Skye?” she echoed, her throat dry.

“You heard me. What are you doing waking up so late?” She arched an eyebrow. It was unnerving. May looked… cold. Concerned, but cold. "Are you okay?"

Before she could say anything, a hand on her arm startled her. Without her powers, she had to turn around to see who it was. 

Simmons. Baby faced Simmons in a sweater.

Daisy hadn’t seen her in a sweater in years.

“Uh,” she gaped at Jemma, who said, “Sorry, Agent May, I need her for a moment.”

Daisy allowed herself to be dragged along the achingly familiar plane corridors and into the garage- wait no, the lab.

“Daisy,” Simmons whispered. “Is it you? I’m guessing, since you look like Leo did.”

Daisy swallowed. “You know me? Know about… everything?”

Simmons nodded. “Coulson dying? Me and Fitz getting married? May and Coulson going to Tahiti?”

Daisy breathed a sigh of relief. “Jemma, what is going on? Why are we on an un-destroyed Bus, and everyone is young, and-”

“The watch was a time machine.” Fitz said, as he walked in grimly. Daisy gaped at him. He was so innocent, and his voice was more than a couple of pitches higher than normal. His hair was all curly as well.

“No way,” she scoffed.

“It makes sense! We’re back in our old bodies and scenarios, but only the three of us remember… everything! And the three of us touched the watch.” Jemma said, waving her arms around.

Daisy felt dizzy, and climbed up onto a stool. “I don’t have my powers, because this body hasn’t gone through terrigenesis yet,” she said quietly.

“We better not be in the framework again,” Fitz groaned, laying his head on one of the lab tables.

“What do we do?” Jemma said weakly, turning to her.

Daisy shrugged. “Blend in, for now. Until we know what the situation is. So remember, I’m Skye. And, uh-” she pulled up her shirt to reveal two, fairly fresh bullet scars. “I’ve gotten shot already, thankfully, wouldn’t want to relive _that_ again.”

Jemma yelped. “What if- what if _Ward’_ s on the plane still? We aren’t in Koenig's base yet, so he hasn’t revealed himself as Hydra, nor anybody, really. SHIELD is likely still standing.”

Daisy groaned. “It’ll be hard but- for now- we need to pretend like we don’t know. If we are really back in time, we don’t want to crap up the future.”

“Right.” Fitz sighed.

Daisy ran her hand through her long brown hair, which was startling, before noticing her arms. “Uh, guys? If I have my old body, why do I have muscles?”

Jemma cocked her head in confusion. “That’s strange. You know, I did notice that your face looks similar to you, not your past self. Me and Fitz are completely like our past selves, but you seem to have carried some of your qualities back in time with you.”

“Maybe it was the terrigenesis,” Fitz mused. “It made her body more connected with her consciousness through her powers, so maybe she took some of her future body functions to the past.”

Daisy grinned. “Good. At least I can still kick ass.”

“Hey, guys,” said a friendly voice behind her, one that she thought she’d never hear again. Daisy slowly turned around to look into the still-semi-innocent face of one Phillip J. Coulson.

Alive.

Coulson entered the lab in a suit- a _suit-_ and his hands in his pockets.

The three of them stared at him in silence. He raised an eyebrow. “You three okay?”

“Never better, sir!” Jemma said with a forced cheerfulness.

Daisy couldn’t take it anymore. She leapt off of her seat and hugged him, startling him. He reciprocated hesitantly. “Skye? You okay?” he said as he patted her back softly.

It just wasn’t the same. Her Coulson wrapped his arms around her like a father, warm and safe.

This hug felt uncomfortable.

Daisy released and turned around to wipe her eyes. “Fine. Sir,” she added.

He shot her a confused look. “Okay. Uh, Simmons, lower her pain medication, please.”

Daisy hadn’t taken any meds yet, but her gunshot wounds felt superficial. She wanted to laugh at how much her pain tolerance had grown.

Jemma nodded.

He studied them all again, then left. Daisy let out a whoosh of breath. “Sorry, guys.” she said. “I couldn’t resist.”

“Quite understandable,” Fitz responded. Daisy blinked at him before choosing to ignore his words and looked away. She sighed. “I’m going to go see if something’s odd, or missing, like a discrepancy. That could lead us to a way home.” 

Simmons nodded. “Fitz and I will do some research. Another reason this may have happened is our minds switched with ourselves from an alternate universe. That would mean this world would be a tad different from ours. But the most likely option is time travel.”

“Great. Even more confusing. We can’t get a _fucking_ break,” she muttered as she stepped outside of the lab and ran straight into Ward’s beady little eyes.

“Sorry. But I’m being hard on you to make you a better agent,” he said with a smile, but it was all teeth.

She was gonna lose it.

Daisy put on a bright but annoyed smile and forced out, “Yeah, yeah. Excuse me,” and ducked under his arm to rush to the cockpit to visit May.

She needed something normal, like sitting quietly in the passenger seat while she looked at the sky; something she did almost every time a mission involved her and May.

She quickly opened the door to the cockpit and flopped down onto the passenger seat, taking deep, gasping breaths, staring up into the sky.

This was all so surreal. Everyone was small, and hadn’t been betrayed, or shot, or had had limbs sliced off. 

Daisy avoided crying, knowing she was in the company of May, who seemed to not notice she was there. Daisy knew, now, that May was 100 percent aware of her presence, but was too uncomfortable and bad with words to say anything. Before, she’d always just felt ignored.

Eventually, the familiarity calmed her down.

“Sorry. It’s just so quiet in here,” she said quietly. “I’ll go if you want to be alone.”

She didn’t get a response, which usually meant yes. Daisy sighed and left. Same old May, then.

She wandered through the hall, both really wanting to see Coulson just to talk to him and also really wanting to never ever see this young, alive, version of himself again. One who didn’t fully yet see her as a daughter; who hadn’t gone to hell and back with her. One who’d never been with May.

_OmigodMaysleptwithWardwhatthefuckthatmemoryfeelslikeafeverdream-_

An alarm sounded abruptly on the plane. Daisy stopped in place for a second, trying to figure out what to do, when Ward brushed past her to go to the main mission control. “Skye? Let’s go,” he told her impatiently.

Oh yeah. It was the mission alarm. 

She numbly followed him into the main room as they all circled around the table, Coulson at the head.

“We put a tracker on one of the centipede soldiers that we freed, and sent him back in the field recently. He just popped up in a lab in London. We’re going to find him, and if there are more centipede soldiers or formula there, we’ll take care of it. Understood?”

They all nodded. Daisy’s eyes widened a little. She remembered this one. It had been a trap, and they’d all narrowly avoided dying. 

What harm would avoiding this one mission do?

“Wait.” she blurted. Everyone turned to look at her; Fitz and Jemma’s eyes were shooting daggers. She took a deep breath. “How do you know it isn’t a trap? Why would his tracker pop up here and now? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Maybe not,” Coulson admitted, “But Hand wants us to carry out this mission. We’ll go in with half tactical gear, don’t worry. And you won’t be going, Skye.” 

Great. If Hand assigned it there was no way she could prevent them from going. 

“Okay.” she agreed reluctantly, studying the little blip on the screen.

“Okay? Last time you were forced to stay back on base you pouted for like, a minute,” Ward frowned, moving closer to her.

“Well I didn’t this time.” she snapped, recoiling from the proximity to him. Everyone shot her confused looks.

“Uh- Dai- Skye hasn’t been feeling well,” Jemma interjected. “She should go lie down, right?”

Daisy rolled her eyes, then smiled sweetly at Ward. “Right,” she said through her teeth, trying to keep up false pretences.

This was fucking _hard_.

Everyone stared at her, then slowly dispersed. Coulson walked up to her once everyone was gone. “You okay?” he asked gently. “Is it the gunshot wound?”

“Sure.” she muttered, absently running her hands over it and pressing on it to feel more of the pain.

He looked at her for a moment, then left, saying, “If you need anything, just come ask.” 

She nodded to his retreating back, then got on the display and started searching for things in the SHIELD database that might be different from what she remembered; to prove or disprove Jemma’s alternate universe theory.

_Lincoln Campbell: Broken out of juvie, whereabouts unknown._

_Bobbi Morse: Ex Wife to Lance Hunter, a mercenary. Stationed on the Illiad._

_Audrey Nathan: Cellist, in Wisconsin. Ex-partners to REDACTED._

“What are you doing?” She heard from behind her. Daisy whirled around to see May at the doorway. 

May nodded her chin towards the screen. “Why are you researching Audrey Nathan? Do you know who that is?”

Daisy nodded, confused. “Coulson’s ex-girlfriend, right?”

May’s eyes widened almost imperceptibly before she narrowed them. “How do you know that?”

“How do I- _Oh_ ,” she realized. They hadn’t yet gone on the mission to save Audrey yet. That had happened after Ward had betrayed them and broken into the Fridge. “I don’t- I guessed-” she stammered, trying to figure her way out of this predicament. 

May walked up to her slowly. “Why were you searching up agent Morse?”

Daisy just stared at the older woman warily. 

“Answer the question, Skye.”

She blanked, then blurted, “Ward was talking about them, okay? He was telling me stories about y'all at the academy. He mentioned Ms. Nathan, the cellist, who used to date Coulson. And Ms. Morse. And an old friend named Lincoln. I was just curious if he was telling the truth,” She lied.

May studied her for a moment, then nodded and left to go to the cockpit.

That was a weak ass excuse. May definitely knew something was up, but evidently decided not to push it.

Daisy sighed and rubbed her face with her hand, wishing she would just wake up from this nightmare.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy and the others learn some things about their situation, Daisy beats up Ward, and nothing ever goes over May's head. (:
> 
> Happy Monday!

The mission went the exact same as the first time it happened. The building exploded, and May got shrapnel in her thigh and Ward got some lodged in his arm.

The three of them came back, irritated but glad to be alive, just like last time. After they all got patched up and went to their rooms, the three time travelers gathered in Daisy’s old bunk.

“This is surreal. I’m having extreme deja vu right now,” Daisy sighed. “May caught me researching people we knew, like Lincoln and Bobbi, but she seemed to believe my excuse, at least for now.”

Jemma huffed. “What will we do? Acting normal is getting to be impossible. Ward makes me want to throw up, and every time I see Coulson I want to cry. I can’t even fathom how you’re feeling,” she told Daisy.

She shrugged and tried to blow it off. “I just remember that it’s not really him, that’s all. And May doesn’t really talk much, so it’s fine with her. And Ward is a dick, so I just have to keep myself from punching him to kingdom come.”

Fitz grumbled, “My stutter came up a little earlier when I was handing him Icers. I had to bolt. I think he might suspect something.”

Daisy groaned and flopped onto her bed. “We’ve done it all, I swear. Mind control, Inhumans, Robots, the Devil, Space, Aliens, and now time travel for the third time in a  _ year _ .”

“Would make a good resume,” Fitz remarked.

“Right. Experience: Being held hostage, being forced to open a portal to a planet called Death…” Jemma responded. “Very versatile life skills.”

They chuckled grimly, then froze when they heard a knock on the door. “Skye?” Ward called out.

“Yes?” Daisy responded.

“We have training first thing tomorrow morning. Don’t be late.”

“Kay.”

Ward moved away.

Daisy made a face. “Wow. I can’t do Tai Chi with May anymore; she hasn’t even taught it to me yet. Ward’s still my SO.”

“Wasn’t Ward training you sort of bad on purpose?” Jemma recalled. 

Daisy nodded. “He made me work my posture and balance wrong and stuff. Little things that made my progress slower. May spent a couple of months reversing those habits.”

“God, I wish you could kick his ass in sparring. I’d love to see his face,” Fitz grumbled.

“Me too, but then they’ll all be suspicious that a clueless hacker now knows 20 ways to kill a person with her thumb,” Daisy replied mournfully.

“Maybe slip in a good shot to his crotch and play it off as an accident,” Jemma suggested playfully.

Daisy grinned. “Oh yeah, for sure. I’m sure I can ‘accidentally’ land my fists in uncomfortable places,” she joked.

The three of them giggled then, in the cramped space of Daisy’s bunk. It almost felt like old times, when they were the Bus Kids and didn’t yet know what true pain felt like.

“Alright, well, I’m tired,” Jemma said, yawning. 

Fitz frowned. “We’ll have to sleep in separate bunks, won’t we?”

Jemma pouted. “Oh, right. It would make everyone suspicious.”

They both left Daisy’s room, grumbling about being cold and alone at night.

Daisy curled up in her bed, comforted by the thought that she wasn’t in this alone; she had her pseudo sister and- well, a guy that still made her sick from looking at him, but at least he meant well. Unlike Ward, who was just a plain old psychopath. 

She was so so ready to hit him hard the next day.

  
  


.o.

  
  


“Okay, Skye,” Ward said the next morning. It was late to Daisy, only 8 in the morning; she had been awake since 4 and had done Tai Chi alone in her bunk. She tried her best to look sleepy when she felt wide awake.

“Today we’ll do some punching technique, work on firing a gun, and then a little bit of sparring. We’ll go easy today, okay? I know your wound still hurts. You took your meds, right?”

“Yup,” she lied. Her wounds still felt like a simple nuisance.

Ward prepped a sandbag from the ceiling as she automatically began to wrap her hands. Ward shot her a confused look. “Since when do you wrap?”

She gave him a blank stare, then hit herself internally. She hadn’t started wrapping her hands until she started working with May. She hadn’t had a need to, since she couldn’t hit hard enough to bruise her knuckles anyway.

“Oh, haha, sorry,” she giggled, feigning innocence. “I saw a youtube video yesterday; it said doing this makes your punches better.”

He sighed, exasperated. “The weapons don’t make the fighter, Skye. Your punches will only get better with practice, not wrapping.”

She gave him a clueless smile. “Yup. Sorry,” but she made no move to remove her wraps. She knew that without the calluses her actual body had, this one’s knuckles would split quickly from the force of her punches. Even holding back, they would hurt the smooth skin on her fingers.

Ward took a couple of boring minutes to show her how to frame her body for the punch. Now, looking at his teaching, it was obvious how he’d set her up to fail. The stance he was showing her was so off, and could lead to her being injured or knocked off balance. Fucking Ward.

When he gave her the motion to try a punch herself, she felt pissed and, even though she was supposed to pretend like she was ‘Skye’, she barely restrained herself as she let loose a hard punch that sent the bag flying and shaking on its chains. She imagined the bag was Ward. The target in question blinked.

“Hey, maybe it  _ is _ the wraps!” She remarked, borderline sarcastic.

“What- What was that?” Ward demanded. “You’ve barely been able to move the bag in the past! Are you taking steroids, or something?”

Daisy snorted. “As if.”

Ward hissed, then grabbed her arm. Daisy flinched automatically and pushed him off. “Why are you muscular all of a sudden? Two days ago your arms were still  _ sticks _ .”

“I dunno, Ward, have you ever heard of  _ exercising _ ?” she retorted.

“Yeah- but it doesn’t get results like this that fast!”

She huffed. “It doesn’t matter, Ward. Leave it alone.”

He gaped at her, then scoffed and held the bag in place. “Again, then,” he said, looking almost… scared? Wary?

_ Yeah, you should be, _ she thought. 

When they moved on to gun training, Daisy noticed that May had entered the room and was sipping tea, watching them. With May’s scrutiny, she knew she had to make her posture look weak and untrained, but years of training with her mentor had ingrained the proper things into her muscle memory, which she had carried to the past along with her muscles. She tried to slouch and stick out her chest, feeling absolutely foolish and exposed in the horrible stance.

Ward slipped an Icer into her grip and handed her some goggles, which she put on her head with no argument. She had a feeling her ‘bad’ shooting was going to send something flying into the air.

She was quite correct.

On her first shot, Daisy clipped the edge of the target, eliciting a scoff from Ward. Her second, now annoyed run missed the board completely and flew off somewhere into the abyss of the cargo hold. The third time, the empty dendrotoxin bullet was closer to the center of the target, but not near enough to be considered a good shot.

“Okay,  _ Skye _ ,” Ward said, with an edge of smugness to his voice. Daisy got the feeling he’d been worried she would suddenly be amazing with guns as well. “This is how you do it  _ properly _ .” As he started showing her the proper posture to use, she noticed he was actually correct this time and wasn’t feeding her invaluable information, likely because of May’s presence.

When he handed the gun back to her, she repeated the same marks she’d done before, landing the bullets exactly where they’d hit the time before. It was actually something only a highly  trained agent could do, but of course Ward didn't notice; instead he rolled his eyes and told her to take a break and then they’d start sparring.

She turned around to get an unnecessary drink of water and noticed that May had slipped away during their gun training.

When they began sparring, Daisy did exactly what she’d promised, she kept accidentally landing on his pressure points or sensitive areas, digging her heel or palm into them, and then letting herself be bested by Ward. It was almost comical how she would strike him and then immediately drop her stance and be tackled down. One time when she hit the ground and was pinned by a frustrated sweaty Ward, she turned her head to see Jemma and Fitz grinning from the lab. She winked at them and then kneed Ward right where it hurt, and they burst out laughing. 

“Agh, sorry, sorry!” she said apologetically. “I keep hurting you today, I guess my balance is just off or something.” Ward seemed embarrassed after the weird reverse beating he’d just received and let her leave training early so he could go back to his room and lick his wounds. 

She entered the lab, grinning. “How was that?”

“Amazing! Did you see how flushed he was?” Jemma exclaimed. 

“Oh- and we confirmed it. We went back in time. You know what particles we have lingering on our skin?” Fitz asked, leading Daisy to the main display in the lab. “Pym particles.”

“Didn’t they use that to go back in time to prevent Thanos from ever killing anybody?” Daisy remembered.

“Exactly!” Jemma responded. “I’m sure if we check you, you’ll have traces of it on your skin, and a lot on your hands where you touched the watch.”

Daisy sighed. “So, we really can’t mess this up. We have to act completely normal, don’t we. To prevent a butterfly effect.”

She saw the two of them exchange glances. “Well, not really. Remember how Deke stayed alive even though we prevented him from ever existing?” Fitz asked. 

“Yeah.”

“It’s called the multiverse theory, and he proved it’s real. If we do manage to change time, all it will do is create a new timeline. If we return to our future, whatever we did here won’t matter. These bodies will likely receive the old Skye and FitzSimmons back once we exit this timeline and come back to our own, and it’ll be like this never happened.”

“So basically, no matter what we do, the future will stay the same. But we can still die and it’ll have consequences.” Daisy summarized. “Wait- so we can kill Ward?”

“Well, yes, but we shouldn’t. Maybe just beat him up.” Jemma said with a wince. “We really don’t want his blood on our hands. Coulson did it for us, and he always used to say that he regretted it; that he went too far.”

“True. Well, I’ll settle for beating him up.” Daisy shrugged. “Any leads on getting home?”

“Not yet, but we’ll let you know.” Jemma said cheerfully. “We may be able to find Hank Pym and get some particles ourselves to get home, though we’ll have to find him first,” she sighed. “Well, now we know what’s happened, at least a little. It will help us find a solution.”

Daisy nodded and left, deciding to go grab something from the kitchen. Rounding the corner into the main room, she was suddenly assaulted by somebody. She raised her hands to quake them, then realized too late that she didn’t have powers when her arms were pinned to her sides and a knife was at her throat. She blinked at her attacker: May.

“Uh, what?” She asked the woman, confused and also a little terrified.

May dug the knife further into her neck, but still didn’t draw blood. “Who are you?” she growled.

“May, it’s me, Skye,” she pleaded. “Let’s talk, okay?”

“You’re not her,” she snarled. “Your aim is that of an agent that’s been trained for years. Your second round of shots met the exact point each time.”

Daisy frowned. She’d gotten too cocky; of course the senior agent would notice.

“Your arms are muscular; something that can’t have happened in two days. So I repeat: Who are you?” May demanded.

Daisy winced. “It’s me, May,” she rasped. “I’m Skye, from- from the future,” she admitted.

May barked out a short laugh. “Sure. And I’m a Hydra agent.”

Daisy almost laughed at that.

“I swear, it’s me, May! I-” she stretched her neck out to keep the blade from hitting it while she racked her brain to come up with proof she came from the future.

“Bahrain.”

The knife at her neck stilled as May’s eyes went scarily dark. Daisy continued quickly. “I find out about a year from now. You only ever told two people, Coulson and your mom, about what happened.” She swallowed. “You killed the girl, May. All of the stories about The Cavalry were wrong.”

May growled and didn’t let up with the knife. “How did you find out?”

“Well, it’s kind of a long story, but the girl had superpowers and the leader of people with superpowers was there that day.”

May bared her teeth. “That’s not proof of anything. It just means you have connections with the lady, not with me.”

“Uh… Fuck… Okay. Here are things you’ve told me that I don’t think anybody knows, except for maybe Coulson. You hate coffee because that was the smell that always lingered in your house when your parents were going through a divorce. You used to love ice skating. You still have nightmares about Bahrain. Your first mission with Coulson was in Sausalito where you were plunged in the bay for 5 hours. And… You’ve loved Coulson since the moment you’ve met him.” She finished. While she’d talked, May’s eyes had widened and she’d slowly lowered the knife. 

“I’ve never told anybody about that.”

“Well, in the future you kiss him. And he kisses you back. Oh, and you have sex, too.”

May stepped away from Daisy warily. 

“Do you believe me now?”

“Not fully. How far from the future are you, hypothetically?”

“About 5 years.”

“And how did you get here?” Daisy could tell May was interrogating her, waiting for her to slip up and hesitate. 

“We touched a watch.”

“We?”

“Oh, yeah. Me, Fitz, and Jemma. We’re all from the future.”

May scowled, then grabbed her arm and dragged her to the labs. FitzSimmons looked up cheerfully when they entered then paled at the look on May’s face. 

“You. Not a word,” she instructed Daisy. She nodded obediently.

“She says you’re from the future. How far from the future are you?” May asked.

_ Oh, she’s checking our stories to see if they match. _

“About 5, I’d say,” Jemma said, her eyes wide.

“How?”

“We touched a watch confiscated from an ex-Hydra operative.”

May seemed to almost relax at that, then frowned a little, still mostly maintaining her mask of calm. “Hydra? Hydra’s dead.”

They all exchanged glances. “About that…”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coulson and May find out.
> 
> It's a little filler, but the next chapter is super plot filled. (:

The three of them told May that before they could elaborate, they needed Ward off of the bus, so a reluctant May sent him to get groceries after she made a pit stop in Spain. They then brought both her and a confused Coulson to the main mission room.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, before Daisy spoke up to break the tension. “We’re from the future.”

Coulson, sitting there with his arms crossed, just arched an eyebrow.

“They have proof,” May muttered.

“What kind of proof?” Coulson asked skeptically. Both Fitz and Jemma turned to Daisy; they knew she knew them both best. Daisy sighed. 

“Well, in the future, we grow closer, so you tell me stuff that nobody else would know.”

“Like what?”

“Uh. Well. Lola? Your dad used to drag you to work on it every day after school, and you didn’t want to work on the hunk of junk, but once you were finished, it looked great. And then your dad died, when you were nine. And you realized that you spent all that time working on Lola with your dad, too, so you were grateful. Oh, and then you compared me to the car; it was funny.”

Coulson’s eyes widened almost imperceptibly. Daisy could tell that he at least partially believed her.

“And I know what really happened in Bahrain and you don’t, so.” she shrugged. “A lot of the other stuff you told me you also told FitzSimmons or May, so it wouldn’t really be proof.” 

Then she brightened. “But I know what really happened in Tahiti.”

Coulson lost his composure for a split second and gaped at Daisy, then schooled his expression back to a normal, calm demeanor. Meanwhile, May looked like she hadn’t reacted, but Daisy could tell she was freaking out that they mentioned it. Her job was to keep him from knowing.

Jemma groaned. “Daisy, don’t tell him that!”

“We went to the guest house already at this point, and he’s talked to Dr. Streiten!” she defended herself. “He knows almost everything about it except for the carvings. I said it for proof. Nobody but him, May, Fury, and a couple of the doctors know exactly what happened.”

“May?” Coulson whirled around. “You knew?”

“Ah, fuck. No, nope, not yet,” Daisy lied. She really didn’t need them fighting right now about May knowing about Tahiti and reporting his well being to Fury; it had been a headache the first time around. “She finds out later.”

Coulson sighed and turned back to face them. May sent Daisy a look of concealed surprise and confused thankfulness.

“Okay. I’m going to say I can believe you,” Coulson mused, and May nodded next to him. “Why are you here? Preventing the apocalypse or something?”

“Actually, no, sir, it was an accident.”

“How?”

Fitz huffed. “We touched a bloody watch from an ex-hydra agent, that’s how. Our friends are probably freaking out.”

“Right. Hydra? You’re saying they popped up again?” May asked.

Jemma chuckled dryly. “I wouldn’t say popped up, more like…”

“Exploded?” Daisy suggested.

“Betrayed everybody?” Fitz added.

“Killed everyone?”

“Suddenly surfaced?”

“Took down an entire organization?”

“Okay, guys,” Coulson interrupted. “So, Hydra… exists now. Who leads them, do you know?”

“I don’t know who leads them right now,” Daisy mused, “But soon it’s Von Strucker, List, a couple of other dudes. Then it’s Garret. Then it’s Ward, then it’s Malick.”

“Ward?” Both May and Coulson exclaimed. “Sorry- The one on this bus?”

“Oh, yeah. Forgot to mention. He’s actually a bloody serial killer that dropped Jemma and me off of the Bus.” Fitz hissed.

“And tortured Bobbi, and me, and May too, I think.” Jemma added.

May paled, then her eyes flashed with fury. “Why is he on the bus? Reconnaissance?”

“You took that well. He’s trying to find out what really happened in Tahiti. He’s part of Hydra undercover, and, oh yeah, they’ve been growing in Shield since it began, and they become the cause of the Fall of Shield. A lot of good agents die.” Daisy responded grimly.

Coulson had wide eyes and was staring down at the floor, his arms still crossed. “Don’t we need to prevent it, then? What-”

“There’s no point,” Fitz said. “This, our meeting right now, will all have never happened once we return home.”

May blew out air through her mouth. “Okay. Then if it won’t affect anything, tell us about the future.”

The three time hoppers shrugged. “It might be a lot, so brace your -”

And then Ward walked into the room holding groceries. He was nearest to Daisy so she swiftly caught him by surprise. She landed two solid punches to his stomach before he realized what was happening and retaliated. He grunted and grabbed her around her chest, and she responded by kicking her feet off of the wall and landing with her legs around his neck. She spun him around before lodging a kick to his throat and flipping him down to the ground, where his head hit the carpet hard and lolled around, unconscious. 

Daisy got up from where she’d pinned him down and looked up at the silent room, all staring at her.

“Got him,” she remarked casually, before dragging him off to one side. She then quickly sat back down and looked at the rest of them with a pleasant smile, as if the intrusion had never happened. 

“Hold on- before you say anything else- was May your SO after Ward?” Coulson asked. Daisy nodded, and noticed as a tiny smile appeared on her mentor’s past self’s face.

“Duh,” Jemma laughed. “Did you see how quickly she took him down? Only Melinda May could train somebody that well.”

“Same to you, Jemma,” Daisy chuckled. “You trained her too,” she told May.

“Well, training,” Jemma amended. “We only started after literally saving the world from being cracked apart.” Then she frowned. “Which was likely a tad belated, but oh well. We began eventually.”

“So,” Daisy clapped her hands together and leaned back onto the couch. “Where to start?”

“Were Coulson and I dating?” May blurted out. They all stared at her, surprised, especially Coulson. 

“What do you mean-”

“Yeah. Married, actually,” Daisy told the two. “Then, uh, you two adopted me,” she mumbled. Both May and Coulson seemed a little blown away from the news, but Coulson quickly smiled. “That’s great! The, uh, adoption thing.” May nodded in agreement, but she seemed to be having a bit of a mental breakdown internally.

“Maybe we should give you two time-” Jemma began, but May responded quietly but firmly, “No. I want to know more.”

They looked at each other and shrugged. “So, what do you want to know?”

Coulson shrugged. “Just tell us what happened after Hydra took over.”

“Ooh, I’ve got this one!” Jemma said eagerly. They all turned to her. “Okay. Well, then we had some fun chasing Garrett around the world, he’s the Clairvoyant by the way, and then we finally caught him and Ward and freed Mike Peterson from his control with Nick Fury’s help. Garrett had also taken the GH-325, and began talking and acting like a crazy person before you shot him with a blaster. Ward pushed me and Fitz into the ocean in the medical capsule, and then we barely escaped but Fitz… he got hypoxia. After that, Mr. Fury made you the director of SHIELD and then disappeared.”

Coulson blinked. “Uh, okay.”

“Then Daisy got May as her SO-”

“Your real name is Daisy?” May interjected.

Daisy smiled and nodded.

“- and you started carving into walls. Hunter, Bobbi, and Mack and… Trip joined our team. We chased this 084 called the obelisk that contained crystals and was sent here by the Kree to give certain people powers, and these people were called inhumans. Raina activated it, giving her and Daisy powers, but… killing Agent Triplett. Then, a SHIELD faction overthrew you while Daisy was taken to a place for inhumans to develop their powers. Daisy learned that her birth mother ran the whole place… “

As Jemma continued to recount the events with Afterlife and the SHIELD factions, May slowly sank into a chair, her face still stoic, and Coulson’s eyes seemed to pop out of his head as he took it all in. They were taking it surprisingly well, but Coulson had gone to Communications; he was taught to take in new info and analyze it and compartmentalize it.

Jemma recalled everything, and even mentioned Hive and Lincoln’s death and how Daisy ran away, and so Coulson looked for her everywhere. Then she talked about how May was kidnapped and in the framework where the world was built by Hydra, and then all of them getting out just to be sent to space without Fitz. Then she talked about her wedding briefly, which earned smiles from the two senior agents. At the end of a whole 10 minutes of nonstop talking with occasional interjections from Fitz or Daisy, Jemma blew a big breath out after she said that Daisy had killed Talbot.

Jemma didn’t mention anything about Coulson dying or making a deal with the Ghost Rider; she just said that he and May had retired to Tahiti.

“So.” Daisy remarked. “That was a lot.”

May sighed. “What do you need?”

They all stared at her. “What?” Fitz asked.

“What do you need to get back home?” she elaborated.

“That’s it? You’re not, like, in shock?” Daisy asked dubiously.

“A little,” Coulson admitted. “But it doesn’t really matter. We need to get you three home to your timeline.”

“Oh. Well, then,” Fitz said. “We need pym particles from Hank Pym; in the future they’re used for time travel, and it’s what got us here. We’re thinking we can use some to get back.”

“So, what, we’ll just waltz in and grab some?”

“Yeah, except, what day is it today?” Daisy asked.

“Wednesday, the 15th.”

“Great. The fall of SHIELD is only a day from now,” Daisy groaned. “We’ll be shot out of the sky by Hydra before we even get to Pym tech.”

“Wait, Daisy- remember, there were some terrigen crystals with SHIELD in the Fridge?”

“Why?”

“If we get there, we can activate terrigenesis for you, and use it to get through any Hydra agents that try to capture us.”

“Right, right!” Daisy exclaimed. “Duh! I can protect us for long enough to get to Hank. From there, we can go to Providence; we’ve got the coordinates in Coulson’s badge! There’s a lab there, I’m sure we can find something to get us home!”

“It’s a plan.” Jemma responded. The three eager time travelers looked to Coulson. 

He studied them, and then said, “Whatever it takes.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of stuff happens, they begin to get back home, and Daisy reminisces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have y'all seen that post on the aos instagram about how Phil looks at Daisy. I love their relationship. 8 more days till season 7! Gonna cry I just know it :P
> 
> Stay home and don't get sick. Enjoy!

As May left to go set the coordinates for The Fridge, where the terrigen crystals were being stored, Daisy retreated to her bunk.

She sat criss crossed on her bed and roamed around on her old laptop, laughing internally at her flaws in her old hacks and code.

She was halfway through mentally criticizing a sloppy hack into Jarvis when a knock sounded at her door.

“Come in,” she called out. Coulson slid open the door and settled in the doorway, leaning on the frame. He looked a little awkward.

“Can we talk, Skye?” he asked.

Daisy nodded and closed her laptop. She didn’t try to correct him on her name. “Sure, A.C,” she said, using her old nickname for him. It had been a while since her mouth had said that word without her crying.

“What did… “ he hesitated. “I died, didn’t I? The way you hugged me like you’d hadn’t seen me for a while, and Simmons seemed to leave out details…”

Daisy blinked at him, then sighed, leaning against the wall. “Yeah, Coulson, you did. For the second time.”

He swallowed, and nodded. “Okay.” he responded simply. 

Daisy sent him a small, comforting smile. “For what it’s worth, your last days consisted of a wedding, and an adoption, and a couple of weeks on a beach with May. In Tahiti; to be ironic.”

He smiled a little. “Crazy to think we’ll end up together. I guess I finally got the nerve to admit how I felt about her.”

Daisy giggled. “No way. May admitted it to you, and then you kissed her while getting shot at by aliens. It was wack.”

Coulson stared at her. “May? Are you sure?” He asked doubtfully. Daisy nodded. He scoffed lightly. “Wow, okay.”

Daisy smiled inwardly at his surprise that May would be the one to admit her feelings.

“I’m glad you found your family,” he added softly.

Daisy grinned at him. “Me too. Though you were really the first person I ever considered family. Back in this time, actually, before SHIELD fell.”

He chuckled happily. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s good. Was I a good director? Like Fury?”

Daisy laughed aloud. “You were  _ nothing _ like Fury. You- you were- are- so much better. You became the embodiment of SHIELD, Coulson. You were earth’s SHIELD.”

“Cheesy, but okay,” he joked. “Speaking of marriages, I’m not at all surprised about FitzSimmons.”

“Nobody was,” she agreed. “They were constantly being ripped apart, so they had this whole thing of never leaving each other's side. You got certified and married them, actually.”

“ _ Landing in ten _ ,” May said, over the public intercom.

Coulson stood up straight. “I’m glad that you’re okay, in the future. And you’ve got May, at least.”

“Yup. She’s the best, at being both an agent and a mom, but I’m worried about how her and Mack and Elena are taking our disappearance,” Daisy said. 

“Mack’s the director, right?” he recalled.

Daisy shrugged. “Yeah, but… he’s planning on leaving SHIELD soon, to start a family with Elena. Fitz and Jemma don’t know, but… he’s continuing your training for me to become director. It’s what you always wanted before you died; for me to be your predecessor.”

“Oh. I’m sure you’d make a great one,” he told her.

Daisy gave him a wry smile. “Me too, but I’ll never be as good as you were.”

“I sincerely doubt that,” he said with an optimistic smile, and then left.

Daisy sighed in the quiet of her bunk, and wished for a time when things weren’t so complicated.

  
  


.o.

  
  


The mission in The Fridge was in and out. Coulson simply waved his ID and retrieved the box of crystals. 

He placed it on the mission control table. “All access pass,” he explained, waving his badge to them, back on the bus. 

“Fury’s favorite,” May muttered with a smirk as Daisy opened the box to reveal 12 crystals.

“Woah, okay,” she sighed. “You guys should get off the bus, this mist is deadly to humans and I don’t know how far it spreads or how long it stays in the air.”

They deposited The Bus in a field. Then they all left, dragging Ward out with them much to the chagrin of Fitz, but Daisy insisted. They weren’t  _ completely _ heartless.

Daisy took a deep breath, picked one of the crystals up, and smashed it against the floor. She felt the familiar sensation of the husk creeping up her arms for the third time and controlled her breathing as it completely enveloped her face and she saw darkness.

Mere seconds later, Daisy kept her initial quake down to a minimum as the husk exploded around her.

She sighed in relief at the buzzing she once again felt under her skin, and shot a couple of test quakes around the room, which all were precise and trained. 

Daisy walked out of the Bus’ cargo hold to the team waiting in the grass, where she noticed them all staring at her. “What?”

“Daisy, remember how we thought terrigenesis helped you carry some of your physical traits back in time with you?” Jemma asked.

She nodded.

“Well, now you look exactly like how you did in the future.” Jemma informed her.

Daisy blinked, reached up and pulled a strand of her hair around, noticing that it was in fact blonde with purple streaks, and rubbed under her ears where she’d had the lower half of her hair shaved off, just the way she’d gotten it done after Coulson’s death. 

Quickly, she pulled up her shirt, and smiled wryly at the familiar scars once again peppering her body; the gunshot wound now looked like two faded white crevices in her stomach. Almost as if it had never happened.

“Oh, wow,” She heard Coulson say softly at the sight of her stomach and all of its scars. 

“So, I guess I have my body back,” Daisy shrugged.

“We saw the entire bus shake like an earthquake had hit it. Those are your abilities, right?” May asked as Daisy pulled her shirt back down and smoothed it out. 

“Yep!” she responded. “I can get in tune with vibrations around me and then change them. So I can also deflect bullets and objects, and I can change the temperature of things by slowing down the particle vibrations.”

“That must be handy,” Coulson commented. “Tomorrow is the fall of SHIELD, right? Wow, it’s weird to say that so casually. Never thought it would happen, much less in 24 hours.”

“It’s tomorrow. Garrett will contact us for help in escaping SHIELD jets, because Victoria Hand thinks he and us are Hydra. We won’t help him, because we will be at Pym Tech getting the particles.” 

“But agent Triplett is on the quinjet with him, and you said he wasn’t Hydra.” May said as they all walked back onto the bus; Fitz dragging Ward by the leg.

“Once we go back to our timeline, this will all be reverted to the point where we arrived. It won’t have mattered if he died,” Jemma replied grimly. “It will have never happened.”

“So we ignore the whole Hydra uprising completely, got it,” Coulson responded. “May, can you set a course for Pym Tech?”

The senior agent nodded and moved away to the cockpit.

The rest of them silently made their way to mission control and sat on the benches in the glass room. 

Fitz sat down next to Daisy, which would’ve been okay, but then he touched her, and all of a sudden she was back, sobbing, as she felt a searing pain in her neck while the man she loved like a brother had her strapped down to a table.

Daisy shot up aggressively and quickly moved to another bench, far away from Fitz, still burning where their arms had made contact. Fitz's face crumpled as Daisy looked pointedly at the display, huddling with her knees drawn to her chest. Nobody said anything at all for several minutes. 

After the silence became so thick Daisy thought she would suffocate, Coulson spoke up. “Does anyone want to say what _ that _ was about?”

Fitz mumbled, “ _ It’s up to Daisy, _ ” before lapsing into silence again, his hands clasped together under his chin.

Daisy sniffed but didn’t say anything. She missed her relationship with Fitz before the framework, when he hadn’t had an alter ego looming over his actions.

“I’m sorry.” Fitz said abruptly. Daisy’s head snapped up to look at him. He was staring at the floor; his weight forward with his elbows on his knees.

Fitz hadn’t yet apologized; not for the right thing, at least He’d always said he was sorry for how it affected her, but had had no remorse for actually torturing the inhibitor out of her.

“For?” she asked quietly.

He sighed. “I was thinking, last night. Being back here, where it all began, made me realize something. Before the Doctor and the framework, I would’ve likely found a way to get it out of you without hurting you like that. So- I’m sorry that I didn’t consider other options. I’m- I’m truly sorry for removing it from you.”

_ Finally. _

Fitz looked up, his eyes full of pain. “I miss what we had before,” he said, mirroring her thoughts from mere moments ago. 

“Me too,” she agreed quietly.

They sat in silence until she spoke up again. “Remember when I returned from the temple, and you figured out I had powers? And I broke the lamp?”

Fitz looked at her. “Yeah?” He answered cautiously.

Daisy sighed. “You covered for me; for my safety. You protected me, and embraced me.” she bit her lip. “That’s the day I started thinking of you as a brother. So when- when you  _ cut into me _ that day, it was like the opposite of that day. It was the worst possible way you could betray me, Fitz. Because you still were like a brother to me. That’s the problem.”

Daisy blew out a large, shaky breath. “I never stopped loving you. I forgave you immediately, even though I didn't want to. So everytime I look at you, I see both the brother you’ve always been and the monster that hurt me.”

“I understand, I do,” he said quietly. “But Daisy- I’ll do whatever you need me to do for us to maybe go back to what we had before.”

She barked out a quiet laugh. “We can’t go back, Fitz. We can only move forward. Maybe-” she hesitated. “We can one day have that sibling relationship again; but it won’t be the same. I’ll be on edge around you for a long time, Fitz. I still need to heal before I can think about reconnecting properly.”

He nodded. “I understand. I’m sorry, Daisy.”

She bit her lip, then got up and left to her bunk, not coming out for the rest of the night.

  
  


.o.

  
  


The next morning, Daisy woke up automatically at 5:30, like any usual morning. Reaching out with her powers, she felt May’s familiar vibrations drinking tea in the kitchen, and everyone else sleeping peacefully in their bunks.

It was strange. She had grown so used to her family’s vibrations that these slightly altered versions threw her off. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly how, but they were all different. The only one she didn’t fully notice as strange was Coulson’s because she hadn’t felt his vibrations in months.

She got out of bed and shrugged on a workout shirt and leggings, then walked to the common room where May was setting up a mat for Tai Chi.

“Hey,” she said awkwardly. May turned to her. 

“We did Tai Chi together all the time in the future, so… if you don’t mind the intrusion…”

“I don’t. There are extra mats-”

“-Over there, I remember. Oh, sorry.” she interrupted, then apologized hastily. May smirked.

Daisy grabbed the purple mat she had ended up adopting once May had become her SO, and spread it out next to her. The both of them began, Daisy not even having to look at her to seamlessly move her way through the motions. May hadn’t changed her routine in 5 years, and Daisy could do it without even thinking.

Moving there, with her eyes closed, listening to May’s soft breathing, she could almost imagine she was with her mom back in the present, doing Tai Chi in the silent Lighthouse before people got up for the day. Those were some of the best parts of the day for her; hanging out one on one with May.

About halfway through the workout, Daisy felt Coulson’s vibration walk up softly from the bunk area. She could tell May knew he was there, too. Her heart started beating a little faster, as did Coulson’s.  _ So in love, _ Daisy thought, amused.

Coulson watched them for a solid 10 minutes before wandering off to make breakfast.

Once they finished, Daisy exhaled slowly and opened her eyes, feeling much more in tune with her powers. “I taught you well,” May praised her with a small tilt in the corner of her mouth. Daisy smiled in response. “You did,” she agreed, as they put away the mats and took sips of water.

“We’ll be arriving in an hour,” May informed her. “Go help Coulson,” she ordered.

“Yes ma’am,” Daisy chuckled as she walked off to go talk to this weird version of her father and help him make the eggs that she could already smell frying.

  
  


.o.

  
  


The 5 of them left Ward tied up in his bunk with three or four icer bullets in his chest, and found themselves in front of the main Pym technologies building, people bustling around them.

“Scott Lang isn’t Ant Man yet,” Daisy reminded FitzSimmons, but really addressed Jemma, ignoring Fitz. “We can’t bring up anything about the future.”

“So, we’re just going to walk in and ask for some Pym particles and he’ll just give them up? That sounds unlikely, especially knowing his reputation with SHIELD,” Coulson said doubtfully.

“It is. In a couple of years, Hank Pym’s going to get kicked out of the company, resulting in his daughter Hope and Scott becoming Ant-Man and The Wasp. But first, Hank Pym was the original Ant Man and an agent of SHIELD, years ago,” Daisy recalled, from reading the SHIELD archives when she couldn’t sleep at night. “Nobody knows about his superhero and secret agent life, so we might be able to use that to convince him we’re from the future, like we did with you guys.”

“But doesn’t he want nothing to do with SHIELD right now? We tried replicating his pym particles; that’s why he left. Why would he give  _ us _ of all people the particles?” Jemma asked.

Daisy shrugged. “I’m betting he’ll be so intrigued that we time travelled with his invention he’ll help, just to see if he can. If he refuses, well, we can always just tie him up and steal the particles.”

“Great,” Coulson said sarcastically. “Plan B is fighting an innocent ex superhero.”

“Wooh,” Daisy said jokingly. “Let’s go.”

When they walked in, Daisy told the front desk that they had discovered an invention of Pym’s that had done something strange, and they wanted him to see. It wasn’t a complete lie. As expected, 15 minutes later, they all were ushered into an elevator and taken up to one of the higher floors. When the doors opened, they stepped out into a roomy office/lab. “Let me do the talking,” Daisy whispered.

Hank Pym walked out from an adjoining room and glared at them coldy. He crossed his arms. “SHIELD,” he snarled. “I should’ve known.”

“Before you say anything else,” Daisy said, “We’re from the future using your Pym particles.”

He faltered. “Excuse me?”

“We found a watch containing your particles that was used to send us 5 years to the past; now. Mr. Pym, the particles haven’t been used for it yet, but you accidentally invented time travel.”

He stared at them, now purely curious and suspicious. “How? I don’t- I don’t understand.”

Daisy turned to Fitz without meeting his eyes. He had helped Dr. Banner briefly with the mathematics of the quantum tunnel, so he’d been the one supposed to explain.

“Your wife went into the quantum realm years ago,” Fitz began, and Hank’s eyes grew wide. “Well, time works weird there. Using the pym particles to shrink into the quantum realm, once a person left and expanded back to normal size, they could exit the quantum realm at a different point in time. It happened to us, but the tech used to harness the particles must have been very advanced because it didn’t scramble our brains even when we weren’t wearing any suits.”

Hank nodded slowly. “Of course, that- that makes sense. Do you have proof?” He asked suspiciously.

“We know your future,” Daisy said. “And we know about your run in with the quantum realm with Janet, your wife.”

His breath hitched. “If- If you’re telling the truth- you’re saying you mastered travelling in the quantum realm.”

“No, you mastered travelling in the quantum realm,” Daisy corrected.

“So I saved Janet?” he whispered, disbelieving. “After all of this time?”

The 3 of them nodded, Coulson and May still unsure of where the conversation was going.

“How are you telling me this? Won’t it affect the future?”

Jemma shook her head. “It’s a long story, but once we go back, our encounter will have never happened.”

“Okay.” Pym studied them. “So, what are you here for? You said you traveled here by accident? So you need some particles to get back?”

“Yeah.”

“But you need a suit; your brains will fry if you travel without a suit. And I only have one.” he informed them. Fitz shrugged. “Can you make more?”

Hank huffed. “Why should I?”

“To make sure our future happens. If we don’t go back to our timeline, nothing will be reverted, and a butterfly effect will happen. You might not end up saving your wife,” Jemma explained.

He narrowed his eyes. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah.” he sighed. “As long as Janet gets saved. I need to send you back to your timeline where that happens.”

“Thank you so much, Mr. Pym,” Jemma said eagerly.

He snorted. “Alright. Any of you scientists?” he asked as he led them to a large lab.

Jemma and Fitz exchanged smiles. “Yes, we are,” she told the man.

“Great. I’m going to need your help.”

Right as he said that, a boom and a large vibration ricocheted around the building. Daisy shot May an alarmed look.

“Hydra,” she growled. “They tracked the Bus.”

“We knew this would happen. Okay. Sky- Daisy, May, and I will hold them off. Get us home!” he told the three scientists. They nodded and ran off.

“Ready, AC?” Daisy asked as they descended to the first floor and ran outside to see 3 vans full of Hydra agents in full tactical gear.

“Not really, but at least we have a superhero by our side,” he remarked.

He, Daisy, and May all prepared to blast the agents to kingdom come.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They return- but with extra people?
> 
> 5 more days- I'm going to cry in anticipation!!!!!
> 
> <3

Before the two senior agents could do anything, Daisy motioned for them to wait. “Lemme just dispose of their weapons.”

“What’s that supp-”

Daisy raised her hands and began quaking all of the agents’ weapons to pieces. The Hydra agents all gave shouts of alarm as the parts of the guns started popping out and hitting the other agents in their faces. They all gaped at her, then started running towards the three of them, mainly aiming for Coulson and May. Idiots. 

May popped her knuckles. “Can’t wait to beat Hydra’s ass,” she muttered. Daisy laughed as she grabbed the nearest opponent’s arm and swung herself on top of him, sending him face first to the ground.

They quickly made short work of the teams, icing most of them and defeating the rest easily in hand to hand combat. As they stood, breathing heavily over the pile of bodies, Coulson turned to Daisy. “Nice powers,” he remarked. Daisy simply nodded in response.

The three ran back inside and back up to Pym’s labs, ignoring the security guards that shouted at them to explain what the hell just happened in front of the building. Finding FitzSimmons and Pym, they discovered Pym fiddling with a helmet. 

“We fought them off, but more are likely coming soon since they noticed Daisy’s got powers,” May reported. “Are you done?”

Pym turned to them both. “I can’t be rushed, this is a delicate machine-”

“Using our combined knowledge,” Jemma interrupted, “And Fitz’s memory of studying the schematics for the time machine Banner and Stark designed, we were able to make this-” she held up a little metal object in the shape of an infinity sign, “- 5 years before it was created in our timeline.”

“Great. Does it work?” Coulson asked. 

Fitz hesitated. “It should…”

May narrowed her eyes. “Should?” she echoed doubtfully. 

“It’s better than nothing. And we don’t need the suits, since I figured out how to fix the Quantum entanglement processor,” he responded. Pym made a face at that. He’d evidently been trying to do that for years.

Suddenly, a deafening crash sounded through the large glass windows, exploding. They, along with everything on the lab tables, were thrown to the floor violently. 

Daisy grimaced after a second of darkness and staggered to get up, her ears ringing and vision blurry. Her side was wet and sticky and throbbed, and every move she made caused the wound to scream. She vaguely heard somebody yelling her name through the pounding in her skull.

After her hearing cleared more, she looked outside the non existent window to see a defective SHIELD, now HYDRA, quinjet aways away with mini missiles aimed at the labs. Before they could fire again, Daisy grabbed the edge of a lab table and hoisted herself up to standing, growling weakly, “Oh hell no,” before quaking the quinjet as hard as she could. 

She sent it hurtling through the sky, falling impossibly fast. 

Without her gauntlets, the extreme hit sent Daisy gasping through the dark spots in front of her eyes, threatening to swallow her whole. She might’ve screamed; her senses were all too overwhelmed to realize. Someone grabbed her arm and dragged her away from the window and deeper into the room.

“We have to get out,” Fitz shouted, suddenly appearing in front of Daisy’s damp eyes. She nodded numbly, overwhelmed by the arms she knew had fractured. Somebody wrapped their arms around her waist to hold her up, then placed her shaky hand on something metal, which she automatically tightened her fist around. The time travel thingy.

Before Daisy even fully realized what had happened, they were gone.

.o.

The first thing Daisy noticed after being in Pym’s lab was that she decidedly was not in Pym’s lab. The ringing in her ears had stopped, and she wasn’t walking on glass or listening to anybody's screams.

Her arms and her side didn’t hurt, either; they felt numb. She was likely on some painkillers, but it’d felt like a literal second since she’d been hit with glass. She must’ve passed out.

Daisy groaned, realizing she was in a brightly lit room in a bed with cool sheets resting on her body and a couple of pillows stacked under her head. She opened her bleary eyes to see May- _her May_ , sitting next to her bed on a laptop.

“Mel!” she exclaimed hoarsely. Her Melinda looked up worriedly, then gave her a small smile. “Hey,” she said softly, a voice she almost never used unless one of her ducklings- Daisy, Jemma, or Fitz- were hurt.

“Am I back?” Daisy asked. May nodded, putting the laptop down. “Where are-” she licked her dry lips, “FitzSimmons? They, they came through- They were supposed-”

“They’re in the lab, fine. Working on the time travel watch.” May reassured her, handing her a glass of cool water and a straw. Daisy moved to take it, then realized her arms were covered in casts. She sipped it gratefully while May held it with steady hands. When Daisy latched off of the straw, she realized what Melinda’d said. “Thank fucking god, but they’re working on the watch? Why?”

May sighed. “You three weren’t the only ones to come back through.”

Daisy stared at her mentor, taking a second to register what she’d said. “Uh- wait. Coulson and your past self?” She asked in disbelief. At May’s tight nod, she groaned. “I thought we were done with this shit,” she sighed.

“Once Fitz and Jemma get access to more Pym particles, they’ll be sent home,” she responded dryly. She seemed upset, and was looking off at the wall. “May? What’s up?”

Melinda turned back to meet Daisy’s eyes. “I haven’t- He hasn’t seen me yet,” she answered, her voice shaking just a little at the end.

Then it dawned on Daisy. However hard it had been for her to talk to Past Coulson, and it really hadn’t been that hard, it must’ve been a hundred times worse for May. Because Past Coulson had no idea about her love for him. Well, he did now that Daisy spoiled it, but he’d never kissed her, or gone through the last five years with her.

“Oh, May, I’m so sorry,” Daisy replied softly, clumsily taking her hand. 

Melinda gave it a gentle squeeze. “I haven’t seen him yet. When you all returned, I was waiting in the med bay for you.”

Daisy sighed, imagining how worried May had been. “I’m sorry we were gone for so long.”

“Two days.”

“Yeah.”

“We thought you three were _dead,_ Daisy. Your heart monitors flatlined, now we know it was because they didn’t exist in this timeline anymore, but back then… I made everybody hold off on a funeral, and finally Deke had the bright idea to check the security cameras yesterday. Then, seeing you disappear was almost worse.” May finished fiercely. “It _was_ worse.”

“May, I’m really sorry,” Daisy told her again quietly. 

“It’s not your fault; although you three are going to get yelled at by me and Mack once our past selves are sent home. You shouldn’t have just touched the 084 like that, Dais.”

Daisy sighed, then flopped her head back down on the pillows, making her wince. “What the fuck-” She lifted up the sheet to reveal her midriff completely covered in bandages. She looked back up at May, confused.

“According to Fitz, there was a HYDRA quinjet that bombed the lab that you used to get back home. You took the brunt of the glass from the window that shattered, and it hit hard right below your ribcage. And then,” her tone changed to a more pissed off voice, “You used the full force of your powers on one arm with no gauntlets to hit a quinjet.”

Daisy shrugged sheepishly. “It was necessary, really. They were going to shoot again.”

May sighed, but they both knew she would’ve done the same thing in her position. “How are you feeling?”

Daisy shifted. “Fine, I guess. A little sore.” Her mentor nodded. “Jemma said that was to be expected, as long as it’s not shooting pain.” 

Daisy shook her head. “Just throbbing, a little. When can I get up and kick ass again?” She asked lightly. 

“Soon. It seems like a flesh wound, and with your gauntlets, a day or two at most.” Daisy sighed in relief. “Great.” 

After a lull of silence, May stood up to leave. Daisy gave her a pleading look. “Where are you going? Stay?” she asked, knowing she sounded childish but genuinely wanting Melinda not to leave. 

“Daisy, I haven’t left since you’ve come back; I wanted to make sure you were okay. I have to go take care of some stuff, but I’ll send Mack or Piper along to stay with you.”

“How long was I out?”

“9 hours.” 

_She stayed by my bed for 9 hours._

Daisy looked down at her sheets, grateful but embarrassed that she inadvertently took May’s time away. “Thanks… mom,” she added quietly, earning a small smile from May.

“You’re welcome, Xiǎolóng,” she replied quietly, before slipping out the door.

_Baby Dragon._

.o.

Being stuck in bed gave Daisy time to think, though she definitely had a lot of visitors. Mack came by quite a bit, though the first time he basically yelled at her until he crushed Daisy in a bear hug. FitzSimmons got the same treatment. 

Deke gave her lemons, like- a lot of lemons. It got weird, until Piper and Davis stopped by, and upon seeing the pile of citruses next to Daisy’s bed, took it upon themselves to make a crazy amount of lemonade, which Daisy was first to taste. (The three of them started calling Deke ‘life’, to his confusion. He never did finish his book on idiomatic expressions.)

Jemma stopped by to give her daisies, then just to chat.

Fitz never came.

Not that Daisy blamed him, of course. She had told him that she needed time to figure herself out before pursuing a friendship with him again, yet it hurt a little.

Without the whole trauma she’d forgone under Fitz’s scalpel almost half a year ago, she knew he would be by her side, making jokes and nervously discussing places to take Jemma to for dinner.

She could forgive him. Against all logic, she did. He had done it not to torture her, but to close the rift and compress the gravitonium, and she understood that. But the way he’d done it… She couldn’t ever forget. She would’ve done it willingly, if she was the only possible way to compress the gravitonium. She would’ve done it knowing she could be paralyzed. But being forced into it?

She couldn’t ever forget.

But she’d forgiven him.

The whole thing was a mess.

After a day and a half of boredom, Jemma released her to be able to walk around the base, but without sparring or combat. The first thing she did was find out where Past May and Coulson were staying. She wanted to talk to them while she had the chance, before Fitz and Jemma were able to send them home.

Mack put them both into one of the guest rooms on the floor reserved for people like Mike Peterson, who stopped by as consultants or guests. Daisy walked up to their door, noting that they were sharing a room, before knocking on the door softly. Somebody inside called out for her to come in, so she opened the unlocked door to find (to her disappointment) two beds mirroring each other in the room, with Past Coulson and May sitting together at a desk with beers and a laptop.

They both looked up as she entered, Coulson smiling at the sight of her. “Hey! How are you feeling?” he asked, gesturing to her wound and her arms. She shrugged. “Fine, I guess. What about you guys? This must be weird.”

May smirked just a little. “Understatement. I caught a glimpse of my future self earlier.”

Daisy smiled at that. “You literally look the same, right?” she asked. Coulson nodded in agreement, but May shook her head with an almost comical look of disbelief.

Daisy came in and sat on the bed awkwardly. “So… I just wanted to talk.”

They both looked at her expectantly. 

“I never got to ask you questions that have kinda been plaguing me for a while and I can’t ask you now, because…” she trailed off.

“Because I’m dead,” Coulson finished gently. Daisy nodded stiffly. “Why didn’t you just let me go, or send me to jail for hacking SHIELD? What made you want homeless, useless Skye on your Bus?” Daisy asked, uncharacteristically shy.

Coulson seemed to think about it, but May spoke up immediately, to Daisy’s surprise. Her face was still mostly an emotionless mask, but her words were soft and a little teasing as she answered, “Coulson likes strays. First Barton, then Nat, then FitzSimmons, and then you, not ‘useless’ you, but ‘excellent at hacking and reading people’ you.” Daisy smiled at her (relatively) kind words.

Past Coulson rolled his eyes at that, but nodded good naturedly. “Yeah. Kind of. But I think it was also how you were as a person. You approached Mike about SHIELD to keep him safe. Then you hacked SHIELD to keep others safe. To you, SHIELD was just ‘Big Brother watching’, and you fought against that; for what you thought was right, with just a van and a laptop you won in a bet.” Daisy chuckled at that. “It was obvious that you were a good person, truly. I guess… that’s why.”

Daisy smiled. “Thanks, AC,” she said softly.

“Then I knew my decision was right (except for that minor hiccup between you and Miles), when I saw you with FitzSimmons. They helped you become a SHIELD agent from your core, and you taught them what it was like to leave their comfort zone and live a little. You became a family, from what Jemma told me of your future after the Bus. Which is why,” he said as he leaned his elbows onto his knees and studied Daisy, “I’m confused as to what happened between you and Fitz. I can tell he’s still the good and intelligent kid that joined the Bus, but you seem to see him as something much worse.” He finished. 

Daisy sighed, uncomfortable with where the conversation had gone. “I don’t think you want to hear it.”

“Not really, but it may help things if you talk about it to two people who’ll forget this all even happened soon,” May replied grimly.

Daisy leaned back against the wall, pulling her legs into her chest and wrapping her arms around it, barely noticing her wound complain. She looked up at the ceiling, and took a big breath. “In the framework, you know that he wasn’t a very good person from Jemma. Top of Hydra and all that. Once we left, none of us knew, but he was hearing this alternate self in his head. At one point, I got an inhibitor in my neck. If it was taken out, there was a good chance it would paralyze me. Later, half a year ago, a whole glob of gravitonium had to be compressed, and I was the only one who could do it with my powers. Fitz had a psychotic episode, basically saw hallucinated his alter ego, and strapped me to a table to remove the inhibitor painfully so I could compress the gravitonium. I was okay, physically at least, and it seemed like after that he was just Fitz again. He started taking meds.” 

Daisy took another deep breath. “At this point, it’s rational to assume he won’t hurt me. Back then, it was sort of necessary.” She buried her face into her knees. “But I can’t become what we were before, I just can’t,” she mumbled from the safety of her legs.

There was nothing but silence for a long time, then: “That’s okay.” Daisy looked up to see that May’s mask had dropped just a little. “Trauma like that… It stays with you. It might never go away, and your relationship might never be the same. But Fitz? I don’t know too much about you two, not yet. But he seems to be done, now. Nothing’s happened since then. So maybe this Fitz, this new Fitz, maybe he’s worth befriending. Jemma’s married to him, after all,” she said gently.

Coulson nodded. “If you want to maybe have something together again, far down the road, you’ll have to be the one to initiate it. To his credit, he’s trying to give you space.”

“We’re not pushing you. You set the pace of healing.” May added. “But it might be much easier to move on if you try to work on a positive relationship with him again.”

Daisy nodded slowly. She knew May was sort of talking from experience, with Bahrain. “I can try,” she said softly. “But I can’t promise I’ll be able to reconnect with him without, like, a million bumps in the road.”

“That’s to be expected,” Coulson reassured her. Daisy gave them both a wry smile. “This actually helped a lot. Thanks. You know, you always promised me you’d help me even after you died. I guess you just did,” She said wistfully. He sent her a bittersweet smile in response.

Someone pounded on the door. “ _We figured out how to send you two home_!” came Fitz’s scottish accent. The three of them sighed.

“Time to say goodbye,” Daisy said quietly.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy says goodbye ):

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter! I got a lil' thank you letter to the readers at the end. (:
> 
> 3 more days!!! I'm so so so scared.
> 
> <3

It was around lunch, so most agents were off base getting something to eat during their break. Daisy, Jemma, Fitz, May, and the two senior agents out of time collected in the lab to see them off. Mack, Deke and Elena didn’t know them back then, so they’d said a brief goodbye before leaving the original bus team to it.

“Once you go back, you will forget everything that happened since we appeared on the bus. Time will flow for you as normal, and there won’t be any butterfly effect,” Jemma informed them all.

Past May pulled Current May off to the side, where they had a discussion about an unhappy topic, by the looks of it. Coulson, most likely.

Daisy walked up to Past Coulson and gave him a wry smile. “I’m glad I got to talk to you again,” she told him.

He smiled. “Me too. I’m glad that, even if I won’t remember it, I was able to see the amazing person you became after my death.”

Daisy couldn’t take it anymore and enveloped him in a hug which he quickly reciprocated, holding her close as he supported her head, a familiar gesture that she’d missed so much it hurt like hell. Tears littered her eyelashes as she buried her face into his shoulder, taking in the familiar, fatherly aura he’d had since the beginning. Unlike the first hug she’d given him; this one was truly an embrace full of love. “I’m so proud of you,” he whispered. She nodded in response, her tongue stuck in her throat. She knew it would ruin the timeline if he didn’t return, but she selfishly didn’t want him to leave. She missed her dad.

After a few moments, she pulled away reluctantly. “I’ve never been good at goodbyes,” he admitted. Daisy chuckled. “You don’t get better at it.” 

He shrugged. “Daisy… I know you and Fitz have your problems, but try to remember it was out of his control. He’s still your Fitz, and you have to take the first step and give him a chance so you can heal and move on. Ignoring him will hurt you worse,” he told her. She nodded and wiped her eyes with her palms. “I really hope you two reconcile one day. It’s painful to see how you two used to be, and then this,” he said remorsefully.

“I’ll try,” she told him honestly. She would. She would treat it like a last wish sort of thing. Maybe this was what she needed to push her to heal; Coulson basically coming back from the grave to remind her what she’d once had as a brother.

Coulson smiled. “Thank you. And…” he hesitated. “I’m glad I was able to adopt you before I died. I’d be proud to call you my daughter, even through I technically don’t know you that well yet.” 

“Thank you,” she answered quietly, hugging him for the last time, she knew, before exchanging watery smiles as he walked off to say goodbye to FitzSimmons.

“He’s right,” Melinda said behind her. She turned around to see that it was Past May, her expression still guarded. She wouldn’t technically begin to let go for another year or so, in her timeline.

“Oh,” she answered lamely. “About?”

“Well, everything, but especially about how proud he is. I’m… I’m proud too,” she added quietly, an admission that Daisy knew was hard for her. May wasn’t a words person, she was an actions person, since the beginning. “Especially in the future. You should see how she… how _I_ talk about you. Like a mother,” she added softly, uncertain.

Daisy smiled. She knew it was hard for Melinda to fathom. She still was in pain from Bahrain, which had ruined the prospect of her having any kids. “You’re an amazing mother,” she told her, knowing exactly what to say without May expressing her concerns. “You’ll teach me how to fight, then how to be strong, and then love me fiercely, just like a mother should. You- when I found my birth mother, you told me that you hoped she was everything I’d wanted her to be. She wasn’t. You were.” she finished. “Plus, she was a murdering psycho, so,” she added with a shrug. 

Past May responded with a relieved smile. “I’m happy you found a family,” she told her future daughter softly. Daisy wrapped her in a hug abruptly, feeling the woman stiffen, then slowly relax into her embrace. “I know you’ll forget, but I love you, and I have for a while, I just never told you. So I hope, somewhere deep down, your body remembers, and you know without me having the courage to say it.”

May nodded as they pulled apart gently. “I’ll- I’ll try,” she responded, her mask coming down just a little for the first time since the 084 messing up their consistent lives. Daisy grinned. “Now go beat up Ward’s ass,” she told her mother.

Past May smirked. “Of course.”

They rejoined the group, and Daisy noticed that Coulson and her mom had just finished talking. May had a small smile on her face, so Daisy happily figured it had been a cathartic conversation.

The four of them watched as Fitz handed the two time travelers the wrist watch that started it all. They exchanged smiles with the whole group, clicked a button on the watch, and then they were just gone. No noise, no anything. Just- empty space where two humans had been. The watch fell to the floor, and Fitz picked it up with a pair of tweezers. 

“This is getting locked up forever,” he muttered. Jemma and Daisy nodded emphatically in agreement.

Daisy saw May slip out of the lab quietly, so she followed her. She gave her some space for a couple of minutes by talking to Piper, then continued, knowing exactly where she’d be. She walked up the Zephyr and maneuvered her way through the hallways to the cockpit, where she saw May’s head peeking out from the Pilot’s seat.

Daisy quietly sat next to her in the Copilot's seat, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around her shins. The last time she’d done this in a cockpit, she’d been back in the Bus. 

They took comfort in the presence of each other in the comfortable silence, staring ahead at the various agents working and bustling in the hangar, their constant movement contrasting to the pair’s lack of it.

Eventually, Daisy spoke up. “I miss him already,” she sighed.

May shifted. “Me too.”

“What did he say to you? Unless you don’t want to tell me.”

“I don’t,” she said, not unkindly. “It’s something he wanted only me to hear.”

Daisy nodded, understanding. “He asked me to talk to Fitz. To try,” she said quietly. May nodded. “I agree. You can’t move on or heal until you have a discussion about your future,” she said.

Daisy chuckled dryly. “That’s exactly what he said.”

May gave her a wry smile. “Maybe start by asking how he feels. Ask him if he wants to hurt you or Yoyo, or anybody on the team. Maybe his reaction will help prove he’s not the Doctor anymore.”

Daisy sighed. “Okay. I know how he’ll answer, he’ll be disgusted at the thought of hurting any of us. Plus he’s on meds. It’s just this underlying unconscious… _thing_ that recoils every time we talk.”

“It won’t unravel until you face him and take the step,” May replied.

Daisy held out her hand in response, a tight cast still surrounding her arm. May took it and squeezed it, as if to say, _I’m here_. Even in the future, or the present, now, May was an actions person.

After a few more minutes, Daisy got up nervously. “I’m going to go talk to him,” she announced. May sent her a smile, and tugged her hand quickly before she left. “I’m proud of you,” she said. Daisy responded with another squeeze and a smile before heading off in the direction of the labs.

Entering the large room slowly, she spotted Jemma and Fitz working on a mini biosphere for fun; a side project they’d been working on since before the time warp situation. 

Daisy walked up to them hesitantly. Jemma sent her a bright smile while Fitz ducked his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “Hello, Daisy? How is May?” She asked.

“Good,” she responded. “Just… processing, I guess.” She took a deep breath. _Time to honor my dad’s last wish._ “Jemma, can I talk to Fitz? Alone?”

Jemma blinked at her, then Fitz, surprised. Recovering quickly, she got up quickly from the lab stool. “Of course!” she said with an uncertain smile, then moved across the lab.

Daisy was suddenly acutely aware that this was the first time she’d truly been alone with Fitz since he cut into her neck. Judging from his expression, he realized that too. Daisy sat down on the stool Jemma had just left; every single one of her hairs on edge. As she made eye contact with him, every cell in her body was tense and screamed to move away from the Doctor- _but no_ , she chided herself. _This is Fitz, not the Doctor, with his shy and kind blue eyes._

“So- so uh, what did you want to talk about?” Fitz asked nervously, scratching the back of his head, a familiar nervous tic that helped Daisy ground herself in the fact that this was Fitz.

“Can I ask you a question?” He nodded. “Do you… ever feel like you want to hurt me?” She asked, using May’s advice. He frowned and shook his head vigorously. “ _Never_ ,” he said disgustedly. His reaction helped Daisy relax. He was evidently telling the truth.

Daisy took another breath. Her cells stopped tensing up at his little movements like rubbing his ear. Her neck didn’t prickle as much.

“This is just the beginning,” she began, “And it will take a long time, but…” she gently took one of his hands and covered it with her own. “I want to try again. Begin to move on from everything. I- I miss you, Fitz.”

He nodded stiffly, still looking at her uncertainly. “You want to try to be friends again?”

Daisy squeezed his hand lightly. “Yeah.” She took a deep breath, let go of his hand, then stuck hers out for a handshake, almost jokingly. He looked at it bewildered. “Hi. I’m Daisy Johnson.” she introduced. He took it hesitantly, then a small smile grew on his face, one that she hadn’t seen directed at her for more than half a year. He shook it firmly as he said, “I’m Leo Fitz, you can call me Fitz.”

She grinned, then, knowing they were far from healed, but maybe they could help each other; just maybe.

It was a new beginning. They let go of each other's hands just as Jemma walked back up to the two of them; a bright smile on her face, having obviously listened in. She joined them as they began to reminisce about the Bus, and their time travel shenanigans, and beating up Ward. Eventually, May joined them, her hands in her pockets, taking a place next to Daisy’s stool as Jemma and Fitz began showing off their project animatedly. Daisy rested her head on her mother’s shoulder as they listened, and commented ideas.

A new beginning, thanks to Coulson, her dad, talking to her beyond the grave.

As they talked, Daisy could swear that she felt his presence, reminding her of her innocence she’d once had, and that she was now reclaiming it once again with a fresh start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. 
> 
> Thank you so much for sticking with me on my first completed multi chapter fiction!!! This was so much fun to write, and even the briefest of comments stuck with me for days. I kind of want to cry (Melodramatic I know) because I'm super duper new to fic writing, basically a week into AO3, and I watched all of Agents of Shield for the first time the week quarantine began, and all of the support and kudos have just- ugh, I'm so happy. Again, thank you for reading, or leaving kudos, or commenting. Every single hit means so much to me. Can't wait to see you again, (maybe?) in another one of my fics. 
> 
> Ellie <3
> 
> If you want to begin another multi-chap fic, I have one based off of [Daisy running off to the avengers after S3. ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24210001/chapters/58321054)
> 
> A/N:  
> Would anybody be interested in a lil' part two oneshot of what Past Coulson said to Present May in this chapter? I'm considering writing it; in my head he says a lot of stuff that is bittersweet, I think it would make for a nice fic.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I actually just made a tumblr, where I'll post updates on fics and stuff. I welcome prompts too!! It goes by the same name, @[AgentsofMarvel084.](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/agentofmarvel084)


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